Shifting Grounds: sustainable water management in the Ganges Delta

In and around the rapidly growing cities of the Ganges Delta in India and Bangladesh, there is a serious threat of groundwater shortages. The Negotiated Approach is intended to offer a fair and sustainable solution.

The delta zone of the Ganges in India and Bangladesh is urbanising rapidly. This is exerting increasing pressure on groundwater and local authorities are finding it impossible to manage their groundwater resources fairly and sustainably. That leads to water scarcity, falling groundwater levels and pollution, with the result that the poorest groups in particular are in danger of losing their access to clean drinking water. In the Shifting Grounds research project, Both ENDS and local partners are studying the situation and trying to find a solution through what is known as the Negotiated Approach.

Four communities, two countries, one river delta

Through the Shifting Grounds project, we want to acquire an insight into the impact of various institutions and factors on sustainable water management. To achieve that, the TU Delft, SaciWaters and the Bengali BUET University are conducting scientific research in peri-urban communities in the Ganges Delta: two in India near the city of Kolkata, and two in Bangladesh near the city of Khulna. Khulna and Kolkata are perfect for an institutional comparison: both are situated in the delta and they share the same culture and language, but are in different countries with different administrative systems.

The project is mapping out the quality and quantity of groundwater in both areas and examining how they are affected by the encroaching cities, what users rely on the groundwater, how institutions like drinking water companies manage it, and how users and institutions interact.

The Negotiated Approach: participation in water management

The communities and local authorities are looking for new or modified institutional structures to improve the management of groundwater reserves. Both ENDS believes that the Negotiated Approach offers a solution: this is a method of participatory water management in which all stakeholders have a voice at the table.

The main role for Both ENDS in the project is to implement and coordinate the Negotiated Approach. We are doing that together with our Southern partners, JJS in Bangladesh and The Researcher in Kolkata, who act as facilitators. We hold workshops and presentations in the communities for all water users and institutions.

Local capacity building

The project devotes considerable attention to strengthening the local population by exchanging the knowledge acquired by the researchers. Workshops are given on 'negotiating capacities' to strengthen the position of local stakeholders in their discussions with national policy-makers and enable them to argue for institutional changes in groundwater management. In that way, they can defend their right to water and ensure that groundwater reserves are managed and used more fairly and sustainably.

For more information

Themes

Partners

Countries

Read more about this subject

A Negotiated Approach envisages the meaningful and long-term participation of communities in all aspects of managing the water and other natural resources on which their lives depend. It seeks to achieve healthy ecosystems and equitable sharing of benefits among all stakeholders within a river basin.

A protected nature reserve, better waste processing, restricted mining and participation of local residents in water management: these are the results of eight years of working on a Negotiated Approach to integrated water management in five river basins in Indonesia.

Large-scale infrastructural projects have detrimental effects on local people and the environment, while their benefits are felt elsewhere. Both ENDS is working to ensure that local people have a greater say in decision-making and is investigating the way these projects are funded.

Manila Bay is crucial site for biodiversity and home to over 23 million people, but their wellbeing is at risk due to reclamation projects, which are also part of a large-scale top-down masterplan for the bay. It is estimated that more than 11 million people are threatened with displacement due to land reclamations and related disaster risks. As an alternative, Kalikasan is developing a People's Plan.

Tidal rivers in the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh have been dying since flood plains were replaced by Dutch-style polders in the 70s. Rivers are silted up, and during monsoon season water gets trapped within embankments. Every year, this situation of waterlogging inflicts adverse consequences particularly on women, as they take care of the household in waterlogged conditions in the absence of men who travel to the city in search of temporary work. NGO Uttaran is advocating for a change in policy and practice.

Through pollution and water scarcity, communities along the Kenyan Athi River have learnt the hard way that upstream and downstream communities are inevitably connected. In response to indiscriminate impacts on the environment and people's livelihoods, civil society organisations within the Athi River Basin formed the Athi River Community Network (ARCN).

The water quality of East Java's largest river, the Brantas River, is increasingly deteriorating due to a combination of industrial and household waste. This environmental pollution has a disproportionate impact on women. Yet, their participation in decision-making remains lacking. ECOTON is working to improve the situation.

From the first moment I arrive in Surabaya, I enter the rollercoaster called ECOTON. I'm visiting them to get to know the work of this long-time Both ENDS partner, and have only three days for this. But ECOTON does a lot, and all of it at the same time. Tirelessly, they work on the protection of the Brantas River.

Good news from Brazil! The National Water Agency (ANA) has stopped issuing new permits for the construction of hydroelectric dams in the Brazilian Paraguay river basin, which is part of the Pantanal wetlands in South-America. The suspension will last at least until May 2020, after the publication of a comprehensive socio-economic and environmental impact assessment that the ANA started in 2016.

Indonesia has many rivers, but clean water is increasingly scarce. To address the Indonesian water crisis, Both ENDS and 3 Indonesian civil society organisations initiated IndoWater Community of Practice. IndoWaterCoP is born out of concern that the implementation of Indonesian water resource management is failing. It aims to assist Indonesian government to improve its performance.

The Indonesia Water Community of Practice (IndoWater CoP) was declared on December 3, 2014 by a group of Indonesian NGOs whose members felt very concerned about the poor management of Indonesia's water resources due to a lack of integrated planning on river basin management, community participation and law enforcement.

In this short movie we follow Indian professor Vijay Paranjpye, who has dedicated his life and work to finding ways of involving local communities in the management of natural resources such as water. What is the Negotiated Approach and what has been achieved so far? This film takes us to India and to Benin to show both results and possibilities.

Our mission

Together with environmental justice groups from the Global South, Both ENDS works towards a sustainable, fair and inclusive world. We gather and share information about policy and investments that have a direct impact on people and their livelihood, we engage in joint advocacy, we stimulate the dialogue between stakeholders and we promote and support sustainable local alternatives.